The term 'Zombie' is definitely used in the comic books. I just so happen to be reading them at the moment, and in the last 10 or so pages of edition 12 they have been referred to as zombies twice. I only really noticed after reading this question, so it's quite possible they've been called that from the beginning.
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RobMar 4 '14 at 9:50

3 Answers
3

So, why are the living dead referred to as "walkers" instead of zombies on "The Walking Dead"?

One of the pleasures of watching AMC's new "Walking Dead" aftershow — "Talking Dead" — is the chance for fans to get answers to questions like that one. "Walking Dead" comics creator and TV series producer Robert Kirkman answered it on Sunday.

In the world of "The Walking Dead," he said, the concept of zombies doesn't exist.

"One of the things about this world is that people don't know how to shoot people in the head at first, and they're not familiar with zombies, per se," Kirkman said on "Talking Dead." "This isn't a world the (George) Romero movies exist in, for instance … because we don't want to portray it that way, we felt like having them be saying 'zombie' all the time would harken back to all of the zombie films which we, in the real world, know about.

"So by calling them something different, we're kind of giving a nod to … these people don't understand the situation. They've never seen this in pop culture, this is a completely new thing for them."

@Rob - Dunno, brotha. Maybe they changed it in the comic book? I've never read any of them so I can't speak to that, but the quote above came straight from the author's mouth on a live TV show.
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Johnny BonesMar 3 '14 at 21:54

Its very clever actually, because zombies don't actually exist. Its just a concept created for popular fiction in our world. But in the world of the walking dead, they are real. So perhaps by being real, the is no need for the concept. Why conceptualize something that exists. Its like a twist on reality. In our world "The real world", we know about zombies but they are not real, only in our imaginations, but in the world of the walking dead, they really do exist yet they have never conceptualized the idea of a zombie.

+0: Welcome to the site! I agree with your logic, but this doesn't add anything that the accepted answer by @Johnny Bones doesn't already cover, so probably should be deleted. When adding answers, keep an eye on what has already been posted to see if you are introducing anything new to the discussion.
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Andrew MartinDec 1 '14 at 23:54